A wide range of agricultural implements have been developed and are presently in use for tilling, cultivating, harvesting, and so forth. Tillage implements, for example, are commonly towed behind tractors and may cover wide swaths of ground that include various types of residue. Such residue may include materials left in the field after the crop has been harvested (e.g., stalks and stubble, leaves, and seed pods). Good management of field residue can increase efficiency of irrigation and control of erosion in the field.
Accordingly, tillers typically include ground-engaging tools, such as shanks and tillage points, configured to condition the soil for improved moisture distribution while reducing soil compaction from such sources as machine traffic, grazing cattle, and standing water. The tillage points are typically replaceable, and various different points may be coupled to the shanks, depending upon the field conditions and the desired results of the tilling operation. Currently, tillage points are mounted onto shanks simply using nuts and bolts. Unfortunately, such hardware tends to wear down over time and becomes very difficult to remove once the hexagonal shape of the nut wears away.
In the construction industry, it is known to retain bucket teeth on the bucket shank using a pin and associated lock ring, with the lock ring being installed within a counter bore defined in the bucket shank. As a result, the bucket shank must be cast or machined to include the counter bore, which significantly increases the cost of manufacturing the bucket shank. Unfortunately, existing tillage shanks for agricultural implements are not designed to include such bores. Accordingly, the retention assemblies used in the construction industry do not provide a suitable solution for desired retention of a tillage point onto an associated shank of an agricultural implement.
Accordingly, a shank assembly with improved tillage point retention for use with an agricultural implement would be welcomed in the technology.